Moments to Remember

Salaam Dear Reader,

From below my eyeline at the bookshop counter, I heard a little voice say: "Mama, look at this book. It's me and you." I leaned forward, as did the little girl's mother, to see a small child raise a book over her head, pointing at the cover art depicting a child and her mother.

It was a moment of quiet tenderness and a reminder that a child first sees the world refracted through their relationship with their parents or primary caregivers. This is how human beings begin and this is how we are. This also speaks to the power of the book to elicit empathy and even identity – the characters or situations in the story need not be identical to us for us to understand their world (and to expand ours). This power retains its potency even amid the pervasiveness of digital screen-based media.

In December last year, Dr Abdallah Rothman delivered a talk on 'God Conscious Parenting' at the Cambridge Muslim College. In the course of his lecture, Dr Abdallah recommended some books, and I am happy to say that we have the titles here at Wardah Books, featured below in our new arrivals.

Coming back to that moment of quiet tenderness I witnessed, I wrote down what happened in my pocket notebook because I wanted to capture the occasion and its power. But I write in mundane prose, without rhythm or rhyme. Sukina Noor, in contrast, writes (and speaks) poetry in transcendent beauty that captures the rays of light outpouring from a heart lost in God's love. There is both grace and weightiness to her poems; reminders they are not just for the forgetful but of the Ihsanic potential available to all who practice the Islamic arts.

And may we be among those who see moments for what they are: as noor-filled reminders from the Ever-Loving One.

New Arrivals